


inside a box cut at the top

by caimani



Category: The Academy Is...
Genre: Alternate Universe - We've Got a Big Mess on Our Hands (Music Video), Gen or Pre-Slash, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-04
Updated: 2017-08-04
Packaged: 2018-12-10 22:07:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,633
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11700822
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/caimani/pseuds/caimani
Summary: Imagine if Mike’s reflection came out of a mirror and convinced [almost] everyone that he was the “good” version of Mike.





	inside a box cut at the top

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Birthday Lauren!!
> 
> ok this is kinda weird but I was trying to write a fic without angst or fighting in it, which was kind of difficult since I didnt have time for a slow burn

Mirror Mike is evil. He’s got to be evil. That’s how this kind of story goes, right? Whenever something climbs out of a broken and possibly haunted mirror, it turns out to be some kind of evil monster.

Also, Bill doesn’t trust anyone with Mike’s face who actually gives off a positive first impression. People who’ve never seen Mike before are instantly enamored by this fake Mike who smiles and compliments them. 

No, the real Mike is awkward and makes people think he’s an asshole or a creep, but when people eventually get to know him they realize that he has the kindest heart ever. Yeah, he’s still an asshole sometimes. But that’s just part of who Mike is. It’s part of what makes him such a great person. It’s what makes the real Mike Bill’s best friend.

So even though Adam and Tom and Adam’s barista boyfriend and Tom’s barista best friend all think this fake Mike is some new and improved Mike, Bill knows better.

Bill has long since drained his tea while glaring at the other table, where Fake Mike, Tom, and Adam are all talking about God knows what. 

“That asshole can’t replace you,” Bill says, eyes focused on the back of Fake Mike’s head. If only he could burn a hole through the imposter’s skull if he focused hard enough.

“He kind of has…” Real Mike says. “And, I don’t know, he’s not much of an asshole.”

“He’s evil.” Bill says. “He fell out of a fucking cursed mirror.” He tips his empty cup to block his face when Adam looks back at their table. “He’s got to have some kind of sinister plan to kill you and take over.”

Bill glances at Mike. He’s slowly ripping a paper napkin to shreds, leaving the pieces in a neat pile on the table. His drink is untouched. Bill frowns and pushes the cup closer to Mike. 

“We need to come up with a plan,” Bill says, keeping his voice lowered. “Put your evil reflection into a scenario so he reveals just how evil he is.”

“Please don’t.”

Bill kind of wants to kick Mike for his defeated tone. “Are you just going to let that fake replace you?” he demands.

Mike shrugs. “I don’t know.”

“You shut your mouth,” Bill says. He shoots another glare at Fake Mike, who just so happens to take that moment to turn in his seat and look over at Bill and Real Mike. Suspicious. Fake Mike smiles and waves at them. Even more suspicious. 

Bill had a nightmare about this sort of thing once before. His own evil reflection smashed its way out of a mirror and proceeded to trash his apartment, steal his friends, drain his bank account, and ruin his reputation within hours. When he woke up from that dream, Bill tried to forget it. At the time, it was just a weird dream. 

But now, it feels like that was a warning.

He can’t let that happen to Mike. Mike’s a fucking good person and he doesn’t deserve that shit. And since Mike is letting his evil reflection walk all over him, Bill’s got to look out for him.

As much as Bill loathes spending time Fake Mike’s company, he forces himself to look enthusiastic when Adam comes over to his and Real Mike’s table and suggests they all go to the county fair that evening. It honestly sounds like a bad teen horror movie waiting to happen. But if the worst _does_ happen, Bill is going to be there to handle it.

Once they arrive, Adam and his boyfriend disappear, and Tom and Jon excuse themselves to do whatever. Bill watches them walk away, then jumps when he notices that Real Mike and Fake Mike are starting to leave him behind. Thankfully, they’re still easy to spot because they look like identical twins, walking at the same pace, with the same posture. At least they’re dressed differently so Bill can tell them apart more easily.

He runs after them, his progress slowed down by having to weaving through the crowds. 

Fake Mike is saying, “I mean, I’ve seen this kind of thing as your reflection, but I’ve never actually done it. It’s… it’s pretty cool. Existing is cool.”

“Yeah…” Real Mike says awkwardly. “Uh, do you want to, I dunno, eat stuff or go on rides? The games are hard to win, but I guess if you want to try them--”

“What’s that?” Fake Mike says as Bill catches up to them. He’s pointing at a funhouse in the distance.

“No,” Bill says sharply. 

Fake Mike and Real Mike turn to look at him, wearing matching faces of confusion. Jesus, that is so uncanny. 

“Not that,” Bill says. He’s pretty sure those things have those creepy rooms full of mirrors and he’s not about to let Mike and his evil reflection go into one of those. Anything could happen. “How about, uh…”

Fake Mike shrugs. “That’s okay. We can try those games, I guess.”

They pick their way through the carnival games. Fake Mike is oddly considerate about the amount of money they spend. He’s also nowhere near as competitive as Real Mike, who starts to enjoy himself when he crushes Bill in a shooting game. The game operator gives Mike a small plush pig and he smugly stuffs it in his back pocket.

“Hey congratulations,” Bill says, throwing an arm around Mike’s shoulders as they turn to leave the game. 

“Thanks,” Mike says. He pats Bill’s back and smiles. 

For a moment, Bill forgets about Mike’s reflection. However, his happiness turns sour when he catches Fake Mike scowling out of the corner of his eye. Unfortunately, Real Mike’s hair gets in the way and by the time Bill disentangles himself, Fake Mike is back to his usual cheery expression.

Extremely suspicious. 

Bill sticks close to Real Mike’s side as they head over to a food truck. Fake Mike takes his sweet time reading over the menu as they wait in the line. Bill spends the entire time pissed off at Fake Mike’s indecision; when they finally reach the window, Bill suddenly realizes he forgot to think of what he wanted. In a panic, he asks for the same thing as Real Mike.

Bill pays for the food and Real Mike snatches a small handful of his fries while he’s busy. Before Bill can yell at him, he’s already eaten them and has started wolfing down his own food.

As they finish their late evening snack, they wander through the crowded fair and take in the sights. 

Real Mike suddenly stops and points at a large tent. “Look!” he says excitedly. “It’s got animals that we can pet!” He rushes in without another word, and Bill follows after.

Mike immediately walks up to a gated enclosure and reaches towards a goat. The goat licks at his hand. Mike moves a bit closer and gently strokes the goat’s neck. Another goat walks up to him and he starts petting the second goat too.

Fuck. That’s adorable.

Bill finds a lady selling cups full of animal feed and buys two. He walks up behind Mike and says, “Here, Mike. I, uh, I got you some food to give to them. If you want.”

Mike takes the cup, says, “Thanks,” and proceeds to lovingly feed as many animals as he can. He pets them all, murmuring to each of them how soft or pretty they are. Bill gives him the second cup and buys a third for him, all the while watching Mike in awe. 

He’s not sure how much time passes before Mike turns to leave. “Sorry about that,” he says.

“It’s okay,” Fake Mike says from behind them. Bill is startled; he had momentarily forgotten to keep an eye on Mike’s imposter reflection.

Real Mike and Fake Mike leave the tent, with Bill walking behind them. They lead the way to the bigger carnival games and rides. 

The three of them go on a fast and incredibly rickety ride that spins them around in wide circles. Then another fast ride than whips them around in a circle. And a small rickety roller coaster that also takes them around in a circle. And then a different ride that spins them in tight circles.

Bill is starting to feel pretty dizzy. 

Real Mike and Fake Mike try to make conversation, but the attempts sound awkward and forced. They settle for just commenting on what they think of each ride, while Bill trails after them in silence. 

When they get in the line for another ride that will not only spin them but also swing them back and forth, Bill hangs off to the side.

“I’ll wait for you guys here,” he says. 

As Real Mike and Fake Mike wait in the line for the ride, Bill’s phone buzzes in his pocket. He checks it to find a picture of the view from the top of the ferris wheel, sent by Adam. Bill rolls his eyes and puts his phone away. 

There’s a fancy merry go round to the right of the spinning ride. Bill leans against the fence separating the two rides as he waits, watching it. Maybe later, when he’s not so sickened by spinning movement, he might go on it. 

The merry go round slows to a stop and the riders leave, and then more riders take their places. The cheerful music picks up and the soft lights flash as the ride starts to move. Bill watches the merry go round without focus for a while. As it starts to slow down once again, he catches sight of his reflection.

Shit.

Not again.

Bill whirls around and looks at the spinning ride of terror. The line has moved and the thing is spinning again. Mike and Fake Mike should have gotten off the ride by now.

He looks around, hoping to find them. And with a sickening jolt, he notices the huge funhouse on the other side of the spinning ride.

Bill races towards the funhouse. There’s no line, so he runs straight for the entrance, which is a creepy open clown mouth. 

God, he hates these things. 

He pushes through a bunch of multicolored plastic curtains hanging from the ceiling as he’s bombarded on all sides by flashing red lights. As soon as he passes through this first room, Bill has to crawl through a revolving tunnel, which sends him tumbling over repeatedly. 

Bill rolls his way out of the tunnel and finds himself in a narrow hall with an uneven floor. It’s lit by blacklight and is covered with neon carpeting. The hall takes him around a corner to a staircase going up, presumably to the second floor of the funhouse. Three-dimensional caricature portraits line the walls on either side of the stairs.

“Fun,” Bill grumbles. “If those fucking portraits move or make noise, I’m punching something.” He makes his way up the slanted steps, only stumbling on a few of them. The portraits don’t move, thank God. The upper landing is even, and Bill finds a trapezoid-shaped door against one of the walls.

There’s no handle, so Bill pushes on the door and it swings upwards. The next hall is lit with slow pulsing blue and purple light. It’s one of those ridiculous halls that get smaller as Bill goes through. He stoops down at the end and pushes the door open.

Ah. 

Here’s the fucking mirrors.

Bill stands up and looks around. There, across the room (probably), is Real Mike and Fake Mike, wrestling with each other against a mirror. Neither of them have a reflection in any of the mirrors, but Bill certainly does. All the copies of himself throw off his sense of direction.

“Mike!” he shouts. Fake Mike and Real Mike both take notice, and then settle for ignoring Bill.

“Fuck this!” Fake Mike yells. He slams Mike’s back into the mirror they’re against.

Bill tries to run towards them and runs straight into a mirror. He groans and rubs at his face.

“Fuck you,” Fake Mike says, furiously shaking Real Mike. “Why can’t you go into the mirror? I don’t want to be a reflection anymore!”

“You _are_ a reflection!” Bill says. He runs in another direction and into another fucking mirror. Durable goddamn things, why can’t Bill just smash through them? “You’re a fucking evil copy that came out of a mirror to replace my best friend!”

“I thought if I could just be better than you,” Fake Mike snarls, “I could take your place. Everyone likes me better! Everyone except Bill! Why!”

“Bill was right about you,” Real Mike says. He shoves Fake Mike into a different mirror. It wobbles, but doesn’t crack or break.

Bill looks at the floor and navigates his way into a dead end. Fuck. “Of course I was right about him!” Bill says. He turns and hurries back, working out another path through the maze of mirrors. 

“I _deserve_ to be the real Mike!” Fake Mike says, grappling with Real Mike. “You’ve been the real Mike for long enough!”

“The real Mike is a million times better than you’ll ever be!” Bill shouts. He’s so fucking close. And he still finds himself in another dead end.

“ _I’m_ the real Mike,” Mike says.

“Everyone thinks you’re an asshole,” Fake Mike sneers. “I did a better job at being Mike than you.”

“No,” Mike says. He punches Fake Mike in the stomach. “I’m a better Mike than you.”

“No!” Fake Mike snatches at Mike’s arms right as Bill finally reaches them. Bill stops, eyes widening. Fake Mike is sliding backwards, into the surface of the mirror. Around them, Mike’s reflection starts to appear in the mirrors. 

With a final push, Mike forces his reflection back into the mirror. The mirrors shake all around them, as the reflection--still wearing different clothes--slams his fists against the other side. His face is twisted in anger. His mouth moves but no sound comes out. 

“Fuck,” Bill says. “I really want to get out of here.”

“Yeah,” Mike says. “I… yeah.”

They turn a corner in the mirror maze and find a hole in the floor that drops straight into a slide. As they go down, yellow flashing lights built into the slide blink on and off repeatedly. 

The slide takes them to a room with a trampoline for a floor. Large soft obstacles hang from the ceiling. Mike bounces across the floor while Bill just tries to walk as steadily as he can. Finally, at the other side of the room, a short straight slide takes them out of the funhouse.

Bill and Mike slowly walk away from the funhouse, into the noisy fair crowds.

“That was… weird,” Mike says.

“I want to say that I saw this coming, but I didn’t think it’d be anything like that--” Bill says, waving his hand up at the second floor of the funhouse. “That was like the ending to a cheesy horror movie. Or like Scooby Doo.”

Mike turns to look at him. He’s smiling. “Thanks for that, by the way. What you said in there. And before.”

Bill steps forward and pulls Mike into a tight hug. They’ll probably never speak of this embrace--just like all the others--but they can have this moment right here. Right now. 

“You’re the best Mike.” Bill says. “The only Mike that I want.”

Mike doesn’t reply to that, and just hugs Bill firmly.

After hanging on to Mike for _maybe_ a bit longer than usual, Bill reluctantly lets go. Mike moves away and takes the plush pig out of his pocket. Bill swallows and eventually breaks the silence. “I can’t wait to tell everyone that your reflection actually _was_ evil.”

Mike laughs.

**Author's Note:**

> this used to be a fun house... but now its full of evil reflections...


End file.
